The Kansas City Council voted unanimously Thursday to approve a new $48 million contract for a new East Patrol police campus.

Advertisement

The police station and crime lab will be built in a neighborhood between 26th and 27th streets and Brooklyn and Prospect avenues. It is expected to reinvigorate an area struggling with crime and poverty.

"This will transform the entire landscape of the Third District," said Councilman Jermaine Reed.

The new facility will replace an old police station and the city's cramped, aging crime lab.

J.E. Dunn and Alexander Mechanical will manage the construction project. Work at the site is expected to start next spring and be completed in late 2015.

The project has not been without controversy. Some people living in the area have said they did not want to move and that the city wasn't offering them enough money for their properties.